[Noisebridge-discuss] Scala language

[Chris Palmer]

Ian wrote:
> mmm... i'm not convinced that scala ... well... scales. i guess its like...
> java code (in terms of performance), but pretty and more concise.
>   
Algorithms scale or don't; the language usually only affects the
constant factor a bit, and might also bias the programmer's selection of
data structures and algorithms. Another poster pointed this out, too, as
regards e.g. database queries for web applications. If you're choking
the network or grinding through an unindexed table, it's not your
language's fault...

Modern Java implementations are quite performant for a wide variety of
tasks, including JIT compiling hot spots to optimized machine code (for
your exact machine). Java has probably the best performance you can get
for a safe language; with some care you can get astounding performance
for even very complex tasks (e.g. Gmail, and a text classifier from
ReelTwo.com come to mind as great examples).

People poop on Java but it's actually one of the best practical choices
available these days.